Pages

Thursday, November 11, 2010

An Exquisite Package

by Julie Morstad

I received an exquisite package in the mail this week — The Exquisite Book that is. And it is a beautiful, beautiful thing. Based on the Exquisite Corpse, a surrealist game developed in the 1920s in which a group of people work together to complete a drawing. One person begins a drawing on the top part of a piece of paper. That part of the paper is then turned down so just a very small portion of the drawing sticks out at the bottom. It is then passed on to the next person who continues the drawing, folding over their portion and passing it along again until the paper is filled. We used to play this game as kids.

This book is a similarly collaborative project with 100 artists participating. Organized by Julia Rothman, Jenny Volvovski and Matt LaMothe, ten artists contributed to each of ten chapters and the book is assembled so that each chapter folds out in a continuous sheet.

My photos don't do it justice, but that is as it should be because I encourage you to check it out for yourself. The project includes some of my very favorite artists and — even better — almost every image in the book is available to purchase as a print for $60.

by Nick Dewar

The book is dedicated to Nick Dewar who passed away during the project.